Happy Birthday, Jason!

This month we celebrated 28 awesome years of Jason. Grandma came by and swept the kids off for a few days at the D.C. cousins' house, so we hit the road again- just the two of us.

Jason G, Age 28

Casual Comfort

We arrived in New York to the welcome of friends with unending warmth and generosity. We had a blast in our signature style of goofy party games and even goofier prizes for the winners. We sang happy birthday over cupcakes and talked about our favorite things about Jason. It was perfect. 

The whole W family came for the fun! 

You're The Cthulhu Worshiper! 

Joe Wins! 

Happy Birthday too You! 

As the guests left, we settled down to cups of tea and good conversation with our dear hosts till the wee hours of the morning. The next day, just as my camera battery died, we walked to the Natural History Museum, the Flea Market, and a Farmers' Market. We studied bio-luminescent creatures and read about the future of the space program. We ate maple cotton candy and looked at Chinese relics and handmade jewelry in the sunshine. We couldn't imagine a more perfect weekend.

I love you madly, Sparky. This year will be the best one yet!
Love, Bunny

Little by Little, One Travels Far

"I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone." 

-Gandalf, The Hobbit

This has been a season of change, and a much needed one at that. We've been doing what we can to shake things up and get a new prospect on life. It's kind of amazing the things that it's leading to.

Have you ever tried to make new friends as an adult? Ever tried doing it without having school or a formal job? It's not easy. Jason observed the other day that we are in an awkward position too, because we're a little too punk-kid-like to relate much to the play-date parents, but a little to parental to relate much to the punk-kids around here. That's something they don't tell you about when you start a family young.
So the other night I decided to Google Cambridge/Boston writing groups and got a bunch of results from a website I was only briefly acquainted with- www.meetup.com. What a little gem this is! I type in a hand full of interests, and I'm given a list of respective groups and when they're meeting! By the end of the night I had joined three local groups and scheduled to meet the New Wave: Young Boston Feminists at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival!
We watched Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai. It was inspiring and fascinating. To think, so much could be done in one country, starting with simply planting trees! One of my favorite scenes was of current military officers planting trees around their compounds. I think that army leaders around he world could take a lesson from that.
I met a great couple of women, one of whom, Daryl, I was delighted to find several commonalities with. I also learned that she writes for Empower Dalit Women of Nepal , which happens to need more copywriter help right now! I'm meeting with the president of the organization this Wednesday.
For the next New Wave meeting I'm going to, we're discussing the book Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters.

I guess the moral of the story is that the momentum from making one thing happen is bound to start other things happening too!

Take Me Back to Manhattan

Reunited With My Tribe

Sometimes, when life feels like it's spinning out of control and you can't find your footing, there's nothing like getting the hell out of Dodge. When I need to do just that, I take advantage of my New York Safety Net(work).
Saturday night we went out to dinner at Lillie's which was decked out in green and orange and blasting every Irish band except the Pogues (much to my dismay). The atmosphere of the overall establishment was a lot of fun. We all commented on the fun pictures, pretty sconces, and antique mirrors. If only they could have gotten the orders right. Though they managed to get my salad right, there wasn't much to mess up besides lettuce and parm. But giving credit where owed, the dressing was fantastic.
Afterwards, the girls decided to hit the cinema for John Carter . I'll be straight, it was not what I expected. It was a lot better. Fun and imaginative- that's what it was. I could say something about stereotypical space-chick clothing (coughprincessleiabikinicough) or the Deuce Ex Ma-nephew, but in the end, it's fun, imaginative, and entertaining. And that's the most important part, right?
We engaged in great conversation, played with ferrets, and dreamed about the future. Did we solve all my existential conundrums? No. But the world seems a whole lot steadier from switching up the view with some good friends.

Planning for Another Trip

Hypothetical question: Let's say you found yourself receiving a large sum of money- half of it was decidedly reserved for responsible stuff; what would you do with the other half? My answer? Anything you want!

As it turns out, Jason's office kind of screwed up his taxes this year. They were taxing him as if he started the job in January, when in fact he didn't start the job till June. This is going to result in a pleasant tax refund that should arrive any day. We've already decided on how much we'll need for paying off bills, saving for tuition next semester, any everything else responsible people would do. But there is still going to be enough left to play around with, a bit.

It was Jason that first suggested a trip. I wasn't sure we'd have quite that much money left over. I kept suggesting as many possibilities as I could- some chairs for the living room, a date in New York with a Broadway, a weekend in Maine- but when I started researching serious travel plans, I was shocked at how in-budget some places really were! I started listing serious adventure destinations to Jason, but when  he started to back off, I was confused. "I thought you wanted to take a trip," I said.
"I just need to think about this before deciding what we should do," he said.
"We've already decided what we should do," I said. "Now, what do you want to do?"
He paused at this. He went to his computer and looked up a couple different sites. Then he came back to me and said,
"I want to go to Costa Rica." 

My inner cheerleader went berserk.

So that's the plan, for now. Nothing's set in stone yet, but I'll keep things up to date here.